Pedro Paulo Falleiros dos Santos Diniz (born 22 May 1970) is a Brazilian former racing driver, businessman and motorsport executive, who competed in Formula One from 1995 to 2000.
Born and raised in São Paulo, Diniz began karting aged 18 and achieved minor success, before progressing to car racing in the Brazilian Formula Ford Championship and the British Formula 3 Championship. He first drove in Formula One with Forti for the 1995 season. The following year he switched to Ligier and moved to Arrows for 1997. In 1998, he finished 14th in the Drivers' Championship, and subsequently moved to Sauber for 1999. He left Sauber after the 2000 season and bought a share in the Prost team, which folded a year later. Diniz was considered a pay driver during his career due to his family backing. He scored 10 championship points during his six-year Formula One career.
Since leaving motorsport, Diniz founded the Formula Renault 2.0 Brazil Championship which he ran from 2002 and 2006, later becoming a partner in Pão de Açúcar and operates an organic produce and dairy farm alongside his wife Tatiana Diniz. He is a board member of Food Tank, a non-profit organization that spotlights environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty and works to create networks of people, organizations, and content to push for food system change.
Diniz was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on 22 May 1970. His father was Abílio dos Santos Diniz, a businessman who used to own the Brazilian distribution chain Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição and the supermarket chain Pão de Açúcar. Diniz struggled to find a good education and went to several schools around the local area.
Diniz began karting at the age of eighteen, and his career was funded by his father who supported his son's hobby. He competed in several events around Brazil and his first racing success came when he won the Two Hours of São Paulo. Aged 19, Diniz moved up into car racing, competing in the Brazilian Formula Ford championship, where he finished ninth in the Drivers' Championship. In 1990, Diniz moved to the Reyanud Alfa team and finished ninth overall, with his best performances being a podium position at Interlagos.
For 1991, Diniz moved to the British Formula 3 with the West Surrey Racing team, finishing 11th overall. He moved to the Edenbridge Racing team in 1992, driving a Reynard Mugen and took two podiums en route to eighth place overall.
In late 2001, the Diniz family sought to purchase the remaining stake in the Prost team, but negotiations with team principal Alain Prost resulted in no agreement. Diniz formally left the team in November as his relationship with Prost had deteriorated.
Diniz announced the creation of a new racing series, the Formula Renault 2.0 Brazil Championship in November 2001. Diniz was a partner of the Wonder Inn, Fernando de Noronha between July 2003 and May 2009. He subsequently became a partner in his father's supermarket chain and operates an organic produce and dairy farm. He married Tatiana who works alongside Diniz and has two children.
Alongside his organic produce farm, Diniz founded Instituto Toca, a non-profit school and research initiative for sustainability. He is currently on the board of Peninsula Participações.
Source: Wikipedia
Информация по комментариям в разработке